I love telenovelas! That being said, Will Ferrell's Spanish in "My Father's House" is just bad enough that I can almost understand it, and trust me: I do NOT speak Spanish, so the captions are a treat.This delightful spoof takes itself seriously every single second of its running time, which always adds to the fun. When the badly made fake white puma laughed sardonically, I bought every moment; and I loved the horseback riding on stuffed animals with a fan blowing their hair. Any time our three heroes are riding in the pickup, the same scene goes by the "windows" and you can practically see the wires holding up the bushes. Rough scene shifts and laughably poor continuity were fun all the way, e.g., our hero has a roll-your-own cigarette in his mouth, dribbling tobacco down his shirt front. In the next camera angle...no cigarette. Then from another view, there is that cigarette again!
We follow the estupido second son of a successful Mexican rancher. All the dialogue is in Spanish with the exception of a creepy American DEA officer who speaks a clumsy combination. This cast is terrific:
* Will Ferrell ("The Other Guys") is Armando, a well-meaning but clumsy hombre who will never measure up to his padre's expectations. He is still a virgin because the "right woman" hasn't come along. I think his chances would improve if he could only learn how to roll his own cigarettes!
* Genesis Rodriguez ("Man on a Ledge") Sonia seems to be the "right woman" despite the fact that she is engaged to Armando's brother and appears to be connected to drug lords. In keeping with the telenovela tradition, she sings at the end!
* Diego Luna ("Y tu mamá también") Raul is Papa's favorite. Little does the old man suspect that his son's obvious succe$$ is NOT based on livestock!
* Gael Garcia Bernal ("Letters to Juliet") is an especially great "bad guy!" He lights two Canadian Slim cigarettes and smokes them alternately with either hand. He wears white cowboy boots that are waaaay too long, and is obviously having a blast! Actually, a sharp-eyed Amazon reader enlightened me: Those white boots are not too big for him. He says they are called chuntaros and they are made that way. I added this information on my blog @ JayFlix.net, as well. Thanks!
There is a hilarious scene where two Mexicans are discussing the drug trade. The "Narco" rationalizes that he isn't selling drugs to Mexicans, just fat, stupid Americanos. I was delighted with the equal time granted to the Gringos before the film ended!
The sound track is loaded with referential, mariachi-tinged música that adds to the fun. The men's trio "No Se" ("I Don't Know"), complete with bongos, was a delight. Amazon.com will let me know when I can add this one to my collection.
It's true Will's career has been up and down with hits and misses, but he made a homerun here. I really enjoyed the movie.
With his poor broken Spanish and intentional bad acting guaranteed a laugh a minute. Just looking as his black perm and acting Mexican pretty much sold the movie. However, the barrage of over the top and bizarre sequences pretty much elevated the movie even more (and there are too many too list).
Probably my favorite involved the ones involving the "White cat" (pure gold).
The supporting cast is made of acclaimed Mexicans actors like Diego Luna, and the late Pedro Armendáriz Jr., and young up and coming actress Genesis Rodriguez who all gave great comedic performances.
You can tell they really had fun with this one.
Recommended.
Buy Casa de Mi Padre (2012) Now
This deadpan spoof of Mexican "telenovelas" generates a fair quotient of laughs provided you tap into its goofy spirit. Will Ferrell stars in this all-Spanish language tale of a Mexican rancher who has to defend his father's land after his no-good brother (Diego Luna) shows up having owed a debt to a drug lord (Gael Garcia Bernal). Andrew Steele apparently wrote "Casa De Mi Padre" in English, but the film is a faithful Mexican soaper all the way through, and one's familiarity with the genre probably will dictate how much of the film you'll find funny. Though I'm certainly not a constant viewer of Univision, there are some inspired moments here along with several amusing songs penned by score composers Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau. Lionsgate's Blu-Ray of this barely-released comedy hits stores on the 17th with commentary with Ferrell, Steele and director Matt Piedmont on-hand; deleted scenes; commercials; a featurette; music video; and interview with the late Pedro Armendariz, Jr., who co-stars in the film. The 1080p transfer is fine (English subs run on the picture itself as opposed to below it) and the DTS MA audio is nicely engineered.Read Best Reviews of Casa de Mi Padre (2012) Here
Not a hater, but also not a Will Ferrell fanatic. I've liked him in stuff and not liked him in stuff. But I do think the concept behind CASA DE MI PADRE is sort of genius. Take a popular American comedic actor who happens to be the gringoest gringo around and plant him in a Mexican melodrama and have him speak entirely in Spanish. In Ferrell's own words: "It's telenovela meets bad Mexican western." Just the novelty of seeing Ferrell take on this out-of-left-field role and then full-on committing to it was worth the price of admission. To quote Kris Kristofferson's brief opening voice-over: "If it sounds Spanish, man, that's what it is. It's a Spanish movie." For trivia-heads, this is a nod to Kristofferson's spoken opening of his version of the song "Me and Bobby McGee." And, yes, those are Christina Aguilera's lips as she belts out the title song in the opening credits.Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez, a humble Mexican who takes pride in toiling on his father's land. But the ranch has fallen on hard times, thanks in large part to the rampant neighborhood drug trafficking. The Alvarez household is pinning their hopes on Raul (Diego Luna), the other and smarter Alvarez son who now returns after years away making a success of himself. Raul brings with him his sultry fiancee Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), and never mind that Sonia has messed-up ties to the local drug kingpin, the elegant La Onza (Gael García Bernal). And, it turns out, the bold and clever Raul isn't the panacea to the ills of the Alvarez clan. Far from it. So, now, can Armando step out of his brother's shadow and resolve the community's drug problem? He'll have to do it with an unending hail of bullets and in gratuitous slo-mo. Bring on the gun battles, but, please, not until the final 20 minutes.
With English sub-titles and shot in epic "Mexicoscope," CASE DE MI PADRE hilariously spoofs those trashy yet somehow addictive telenovelas. The filmmakers purposely riddle the film with deliberately obvious and cheap sets, with dubious blocking and editing gaffes and rear screen snafus. There are sight gags involving dummies briefly replacing the actors in action sequences. The film is scratched up in places and occasionally skips. There are bizarre hallucinatory interludes and musical numbers with the accompanying zestful gritos (really enjoyed the song "Yo No Se"). It all kept me giggling.
Will Ferrell's accent sounds convincing to me. I actually assumed his voice had been dubbed in by someone else. But, no, that's Will himself servicing the dialogue, relying on his four years of high school Spanish and a dialect coach and undoubtedly on his fellow cast members who are native Spanish speakers. It's weird, by the way, to see Gael García Bernal in a comedy and being funny. He's certainly funnier here than he was in AMORES PERROS. And that's exactly how I'm aiming to push this film to my friends: "Hey, check out CASA DE MI PADRe... it's funnier than AMORES PERROS." Plus, this one has a fake mystical white mountain lion. Just in case that's the decider for you.
The DVD's bonus stuff:
Audio Commentary with Will Ferrell, director Matt Piedmont and writer/producer Andrew Steele
The late Pedro Armendariz Jr.'s Final Interview (00:03:38 minutes)
10 Deleted Scenes (totaling 00:19:38 minutes)
Making Of CASA DE MI PADRE featurette, worth it alone for the segment featuring Luna and Bernal in a sit-down interview (00:15:44 minutes)
"Fight for Love" Music Video original song performed by Will Ferrell and Genesis Rodriguez
3 fake commercials (totaling 00:02:57 minutes)
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I thought the movie was going to be interesting and fun because of the cast. However, it was boring with no good story or funny situations.Don't waste your time watching it.
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